One of the perennial problems with providing services over a communications network, such as the Internet, is the vulnerability of the system providing the service to damage or attack by malicious parties, such as computer hackers. Particularly for service provision over the Internet, services, such as information provision and communication services, may be accessed using scripts or applets which the hackers can attempt to replicate in programs to execute excessive access requests for the service. The excessive access requests, depending on their nature, can have a variety of effects on the service and in some circumstances may cause the service system to collapse.
Detecting a spurious access request or “hack” by a hacker is problematic for any service provider and a considerable number of security procedures have been developed to try and protect systems from a hack. Hackers however have proven particularly adept at being able to circumvent all forms of security procedures and systems which seek to deny them access. Given the computing resources and skills which the hacking community possess, an alternative approach to protecting service provision systems is needed.